Round 12 Preview

 Last Week           3/9           Season Total      67/99

And here I was, worried that after the Scott Pendlebury milestone there’d be nothing for football journalists to talk about.  An eventful week on a number of points, but I will start with Scott (Pendlebury, not Brad).

I get a little confused sometimes about the tribalism of our great game.  You want to beat the other guys, I get it, but I listened to talkback radio last Saturday as the hosts encouraged people to ring in who had nothing better to say than they hoped Pendlebury injured himself in the warm up or they hoped he got concussion and was unable to remember the game.  A newspaper journalist in my local rag, in a very poorly researched and ill conceived article, actually demanded that West Coast players ‘risk suspension to cause physical damage to Pendlebury.’  People need to grow up, read a few things that don’t come along in your Facebook feed and treat everyone with a bit of respect.  Personally, I’d like to commend West Coast for the great performance they put in last week.  They came to play, they were tough, uncompromising and physical without over-stepping the line and created a tense encounter with an unknown result until close to the very end.  They stuck around to show their respect, even when the media (who are solely responsible for the circus this milestone became) dragged Pendlebury down to the goal square for a meaningless chat.  West Coast showed respect to the player, the occasion and the sport by their actions.

Then, after the game, people messaged me to bemoan the free kick count and recite some unsubstantiated VFL conspiracy.  This wasn’t a fun remark, this is their deep seated and long-held belief.

Let me get one thing straight.  There is no grand conspiracy.  The sport is not created equal, and it never will achieve equilibrium, but any inequity allowed to flourish in the game is done so for one reason only…money.

Sermon over.

This week we lost a pillar of the community.  Neale Danniher was a great player, a demanding and respected coach, but probably made more of a name for himself with his tireless work campaigning to raise awareness and funds for research and support for sufferers of Motor Neuron Disease.  He called it The Beast and true it is.  A disease that takes your life from you piece by agonizing piece.  He’s created a wonderful legacy which his wonderful family will carry on.  This years Big Freeze Match will be a wonderful celebration and if you’re like me and you don’t need a beanie, you can still donate anyway.  The cause is a good one.  MND didn’t take every piece of Neale, he has shared a piece of himself with all of us and its up to each of you what you do with it from here.  Vale Neale Danniher.

Oh yeah, a coach got the sack, but I’d better stop grand standing and get on with the Preview and deal with that in there.

St Kilda vs Hawthorn     Marvel Stadium               Thursday Night

Ross took his team over to the west and like I suggested they should, Freo started Wharfie Time before the first bounce.  They stuck with them for 3 quarters but were eventually blown away as Freo made it 10-in-a-row.  A depleted Hawthorn bounced back to form in Tassie to take an easy kill over Adelaide.  I kinda like St Kilda in this one.  They have a game that can trouble Hawthorn and it works pretty well on the Marvel track.  I only got 3 right last week by playing it safe.  Time to tread the line a little.  St Kilda by 14 points.

Carlton vs Geelong         MCG      Friday Night

Ok, I’m starting to think the Carlton players just didn’t like Voss.  Look, to be honest, Carlton were in a lot of games, so they weren’t that bad (this from the guy who was basically calling for their complete dismantling a couple of weeks ago).  They just seemed to have moments, like the back half of a game where they let it get away from them.  A change is as good as a holiday and maybe there is some belief growing in the playing group.  By all accounts, Fraser was a pretty handy coach for the VFL Magpies, so he probably knows what he’s doing.  As it stands at the moment, there is no sterner test of acumen than facing the Cats.

I noted with glee, that the two highest free kick differential teams had 17 free kicks each last week and it was enough for Geelong to stomp all over the aspirations of Sydney.  They should impose their will against Carlton and Fraser will get a nice reality check for his players to learn from.  Geelong by 34 points.

Sydney vs Richmond      SCG        Saturday Afternoon

The Tigers delivered a coach killing performance against Essendon last week, but I think they will see just how far from the peak of the mountain they are.  No amount of abseiling equipment or Sherpas will help here.  Sydney by 57 points.

Brisbane vs Fremantle                  Gabba   Saturday Afternoon

I’ll not soon forget.  GWS were up by two goals.  I went to the toilet, then I had to peel the potatoes for dinner.  I couldn’t have been gone for more than a couple of minutes and I glanced at the TV and Brisbane were 15 goals down.  They’re either going to capitulate or be super angry this week and teach Fremantle a lesson in what it takes.  The good news for Fremantle, is that Brisbane also have Wharves, and I assume the employees of those wharves know how to tell the time.  It’s a tough call though.  Brisbane by 1 point.

Footscray vs Collingwood            Marvel Stadium               Saturday Night

Now that the Scott Pendlebury milestone is done it’s…wait, hang on…he’s breaking the all time games record this week too!  As last week it was gold numbers, each week, the teams numbers have to be more expensive than the last so we have to work our way up through Rhodium numbers, numbers made of saffron and white truffles until we eventually get to Tritium numbers and then Californium numbers.  Given his match guernsey is currently at auction and the bid is $101,050, you can imagine what the Californium numbers would go for? It’s current price of $27 million/gram would make for some interesting bids.  Back to the footy though and the Pies will be without Elliott who tore his ACL, but they tried to pick up a replacement in the mid-season draft so we can see how he goes.

Footscray had a stirring victory over Melbourne last week and will be keen to repeat those antics this week.  The Pies have a pretty good record against the Dogs, but I expect they’ll get the chocolates this week.  Never feed your Dogs chocolates by the way.  Footscray by 18 points.

Melbourne vs GWS        Traeger Park       Sunday Afternoon

The D’s are coming off a close loss and now they head out to their annual Alice Springs match at Traeger Park.  It hasn’t been a kind ground to them in recent years and GWS looked white hot in a third quarter blitz not seen since…well, ever in fact.  It was the highest 3^rd quarter ever kicked.  They kicked more goals in the third quarter alone than Collingwood generally kick in a whole match.  It’s such a funny season though that past results mean nothing, future potential means nothing and the present also doesn’t exist.  Life is just a stochastic process – a series of conditional probabilities…where is Rene Descartes when you need him?  He’ll be at the footy for a corker of a match.  GWS by 22 points.

West Coast vs Essendon               Perth Stadium   Sunday Night

Barely had the ink dried on Essendon’s statement for Neale Danniher when they were fronting the media explaining that Brad Scott was no longer required.  It was done in a classicly Essendon way with it being blurted out such that Zach Merrett found out from some random punter standing in line for a Latte.  And it was dripping with irony.  The club that, when denying Merrett when he wanted to leave said, “At Essendon we honour contracts” was now shredding Scotts, burning the ribbons of paper and feeding the ash to a dog.  My favourite part was two weeks ago when Brad said he had the full support of the board.  That’s a clear signal that the shredder is being warmed up.  But better than that, Brad explained that the strategy he was executing that the board was in full support of was (partially at least) cooked up by those same board members.  Classic stuff. 

But it doesn’t end there.  Not in the slightest.  While the medical examiner was still looking for signs of life in Brad’s corpse, Hird was fronting the media saying he’s all in…if they want me.  Not only that but he’s laying down a list of all the things they did wrong under Brad Scott.  Essendon need to find a head coach and quickly as the media are going to be crawling all over this with fine tooth combs and microscopes up the Wahzoo until they do.  For Essendon, Hird is an irresistible itch that has to be scratched.  They won’t be able to resist.  The greatest coach of all time could walk through their doors and they’ll still pick Hird.  He’s like a honey trap.  He attracts Bombers like an Iraqi missile site.

They’re playing West Coast, I might add.  A valiant and respectful effort last week and I don’t foresee any ‘Sacked Coach’ rebounding here.  West Coast by 25 points.

It’s Bye time.  Time for a mid-season rest for some.

Byes: Adelaide, Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide